The Galilean Olive Oil Festival takes place across Northern Israel’s Galilee region every November. Due to the many qualities that the olive tree has to offer it has become a recent tradition for the start of the olive harvest period to be celebrated. November 2013 is the nineteenth year that numerous oil-based businesses located throughout the Galilee will be hosting a collection of special events. You can read more about the Galilean Olive Oil Trail here, or special events for the 2013 Galilean Olive Oil Festival, below.
The Lavido Visitor Center is one such venue that will be joining in with the festivities. They will be holding a hand cream-making workshop whereby participants will be able to create their own hand creams using a selection of aromatherapy oils which they will be able to take home with them at the end of the session. Bookings for the workshops should be made in advance. The cost is 60 NIS per person. Lectures will also be held addressing how their products are made and the qualities that exist from using organic ingredients. These lectures are free of charge. In the factory store there will be a special promotion offering a free oil-based shampoo or conditioner for each hair mask purchased.
The Avtalion Oil Press is another such business that has chosen to mark the occasion. Running for the whole of the olive pressing session between October – January is the opportunity to watch the olive oil press in action and sample a selection of local products. In addition, however, during November there will also be an exhibition from the local artist Moshek Kassirer. Kassirer’s paintings depict the landscape and inhabitants of the Galilee with the olive tree as a dominant theme.